[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/09/art.amanpour.writer.jpg caption="Sr. Writer Tom Evans"]

On AMANPOUR. today - the botched Christmas Day terrorist attack on a U.S. airliner has shone a spotlight on one of the Arab world’s poorest nations: Yemen.  Why is Yemen such a hot spot for al Qaeda? What makes it a safe haven for militants? Experts say the country is practically a failed state.  Yemen was hit hard by the food crisis and never fully recovered.  Its major export is crude oil and that could run out within 5 years. And the country faces one of the worst water crises in the world.   In the meantime, the government has been spending 200 million dollars a month on a war against rebels in the North. So where do the Yemeni government, the Arab world, and the U.S. go from here? Christiane will interview the Yemeni foreign minister and the U.S. State Department ambassador at large for counterterrorism. Yemen also tops our news headlines today. Here are some perspectives on that and some other stories.

Tom Evans; Sr. Writer, AMANPOUR.

YEMEN – How successful will the government’s crackdown on Al Qaeda be?

–          Yemeni security forces arrest three wounded Al Qaeda suspects today as they pursue terrorists linked to a plot to attack Western embassies

–          U.S. Embassy has now reopened, and British embassy is partially open for business again

–          U.S. says terrorism in Yemen a threat to regional and global stability

QUESTION: Should the U.S. take stronger military action against Al Qaeda in Yemen?

FULL POST

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AMANPOUR. invites you to be the story teller by sharing your thoughts on the attempted bombing in Detroit. Are you from Nigeria? Do you have a webcam? We’d like to hear from you about how you feel Nigeria being in the headlines after the attempted bombing in Detroit. Is this bringing negative attention to Nigeria or is it bringing necessary attention the country? Use your webcam, record your thoughts and submit them via the AMANPOUR  iReport, click here.

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/17/feedback.jpg caption="Christiane – all ears for the feedback."]

On Monday, AMANPOUR. viewers commented on the situation in Iran. It was felt by some that “what comes next” in Iran is just as important as “getting the current regime out of power.” It was believed that a secular government could be just as bad as or worse than a religious one. It was also felt that the question of the current regime being done away with was pretty much a foregone conclusion, but what was up in the air was “how much blood would be spilled?” Others bemoaned the loss of any life, and said that peaceful discussions and negotiations were the key to true long term change, not violence. A number of viewers sharply disagreed with the comments of Mohammad Marandi. It was also felt by some that the number of pro-regime demonstrators that had come out last week was lower than what the regime claimed.

What do you think about the unrest in Iran and what may lie ahead in 2010? Please share your thoughts with us! In addition, if you missed the show go to http://www.cnn.com/amanpour/ for more information.

Below, you will see some opinions from viewers like yourself. We would love to hear what you think.

Sumaiya Khelef
Whenever I tune to CNN and watch what’s happening in Iran, I shake my head in disapproval and remorse over the outcomes. I pray that this ends soon. Blood isn't the solution to anything. People need to embrace the power of persuasive dialogue and tolerance for diversified individual thought and ideas.

Shervin Nooshin
Bringing this regime down wont be easy. The big question is if the regime does go down, who will take over?? Some want a monarchy, some want a democracy, etc... There is no real leader for the movement....and I sure as hell don’t want Mousavi or Rafsanjani to [rule] over Iran.......it just be more of the same....

FULL POST

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/05/nergisiraniblog.jpg caption="Activist Nergis Irani speaks with local Dahanu fisherwomen in the shadow of the power plant."]

CNN Dahanu, India
by Sara Sidner

Nergis Irani is like a pit bull; once she sinks her teeth into something she won't let go. That might explain why at 75 years old she won't back down from a fight that has spanned more than 20 years. The battle now pits the grandmother of three against one of India's most powerful corporations, Reliance Infrastructure, owned by one of the richest men in the world, Anil Ambani.

"He may be the richest in money but I am richest in integrity and commitment," Irani said with a steel gaze, "I don't see how we could lose."

Irani lives a three-hour drive away from the bright lights and big city of Mumbai in a lush beachside town called Dahanu. The town is known as the food bowl of the region sending its precious fruits and vegetables to feed Mumbai. But it also provides Mumbai's fast growing suburbs with something else. Dahanu is home to a coal-fired power plant that sits on its wetlands and pumps electricity into the city. That is where the fight begins.

Irani has fought to keep the power plant from expanding because she says its pollution is ruining the fragile ecology of her hometown and the region's "fresh food bowl."

"The destruction of our chikoo orchards, mango orchards, the coconuts. It is shocking how fast the change has taken place," she said.

FULL POST

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On AMANPOUR. today, we look at the human cost of rapid economic development in India. A booming India has provided millions in Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities the good life: jobs in call centers and high tech, lifestyles scripted out of a Bollywood romance. But behind the urban prosperity lies an ominous reality; 600 million people eking out a living on parched lands, so indebted that for many people suicide seems the only way out. A growing divide - between urban plenty and rural poverty - has come together in a battle over electricity, where India’s wealthiest man is attempting to expand a power plant on the fragile ecosystem just outside Mumbai, despite community resistance and court orders limiting his influence. A globalizing India desperately needs the power, but will the world’s largest democracy ignore the plight of local farmers, and what does this mean for hundreds of millions who live off the land? There are also some other important issues in the news tod ay as well. Here are perspectives on some other headlines today.

Tom Evans
Sr. Writer, AMANPOUR.

AFGHANISTAN – How could a Jordanian double-agent kill 7 CIA officers and a Jordanian intelligence official so easily?

– New questions about security breach at a CIA base in Khost on December 30th when a suicide bomber, a Jordanian national, entered the outpost

– Senior U.S. official tells CNN bomber was an intelligence source who had provided information about high-value terrorist targets in the past

– Former intelligence official says bomber was met off base by U.S. officials who failed to search him before they put him in a car

QUESTION: How vulnerable to attack are U.S. and NATO intelligence officers operating outside the military chain of command and with their own security rules in Afghanistan and elsewhere?

FULL POST

What will the regime’s next move be and what impact can have Obama have? Tell us what you think, here:

Christiane Amanpour speaks with Iranian reformist Fatemeh Haghighatjou.

Today, AMANPOUR. focused on the government crackdown in Iran and how far President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will go to forestall a velvet revolution. Christiane sat down with a former member of the Iranian parliament who’s an outspoken critic of the Tehran regime, Fatemeh Haghighatjoo. She’s now living in exile in the United States. Christiane also spoke to Iranian political analyst, Professor Mohammad Marandi, who’s at Tehran University. And former U.S. State Department official, Ray Takeyh.

Tom Evans
Sr. Writer, AMANPOUR.

(CNN) – President Obama must stand up and declare that some of the behavior of the clerical regime in Iran is unacceptable, former Obama Administration official Ray Takeyh told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour today.

Takeyh, who served as an adviser in the State Department last year and is now at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. must also be open to negotiating some sort of deal to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

He said, “You can have negotiations with Iran, as the United States has had negotiations with many adversarial countries while also at the same time disapproving on the internal practices of those regimes.”

Takeyh’s comments came just over a week after the bloodiest clashes between pro-democracy protesters and government security forces in months, clashes that left at least eight people dead. Days after those clashes, hundreds of thousands of pro-government demonstrators held rallies in Tehran and other cities.

Those protests coincided with new tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, a program the United States says is intended to build a nuclear weapon. Tehran insists its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes alone and says it’s up to the West to decide whether to accept Iran’s proposals on further enriching its uranium.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today said the United States remains open to the possibility of further negotiations with Tehran, despite Iran’s refusal to make significant progress towards a deal before January 1st this year, as President Obama has demanded.

Clinton told reporters the U.S. is holding discussions with its partners and like-minded nations about possible new sanctions and other forms of pressure.
Takeyh said he expects the United States and its allies will try to ratchet up economic pressure on Iran, targeting in particular the Revolutionary Guard and its business interests.

“So you will begin to see intensification of economic pressure on Iran in the hope that external pressure, combined with internal pressure, will cause Iran to adjust its behavior.”

Takeyh added that he believes the Iranian government internally is rather weak and vulnerable and may seek some sort of agreement abroad at least to mitigate international pressure.

But he said the opposition movement in Iran is also somewhat incoherent. “It doesn’t have a central nervous system. It doesn’t even have an identifiable set of leaders or even a coherent ideology. It is a protest movement.”

He said the longer the movement sustains itself though, the more it will develop an ideology and a leadership.

A leading critic of the pro-democracy protesters, Professor Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University, told Amanpour that opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi’s position has been severely weakened by the December 27th protests in Iran.

“The opposition that protested on (the holy day of) Ashura made a very major tactical mistake by being very brutal towards the police and also by carrying out these protests on a day of public mourning.”

But one of the most fearless critics of Iran’s regime, former Iranian Member of Parliament Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, rejected Marandi’s assessment. She said everyone still supports Moussavi.

“The government is not able to arrest all the population in Iran”, she said. “The people of Iran need fundamental change in the country and I am so optimistic that they will see this change in the country in the future.”

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/04/moussavi.jpg caption="Mir Hossein Moussavi"]

From Christiane:

A well placed source close to the Iranian government told me that the Revolutionary Guards and security forces have recently decided to step up security around both opposition leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, since any harm done to them would not be in the regime’s interest. In addition my source says that from the office of Ayatollah Khamenei there is no order to arrest either Moussavi or Karroubi.

We'll discuss this and look at the continuing riots and deadly protest in Iran tonight on CNN at 2000 GMT.